Cloth-cutting machine.



H. MAIMIN & H. B. BATJER CLOTH CUTTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FlLED FEB. 14, 1911.

1 84,402. Patented Nov. 12, 1918.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

H. MAIMIN & H. B. BATJER CLOTH CUTTING MACHINE. APPLICATIQN FILED FEB. 14. 1917.

Patented N 0v. 12, 1918.

4 SHEETSSHEET 2- H. MAIMIN & H. B. BAUER CLOTH cumme MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 14. 1917.

1 4,402, Patented Nov. 12, 1918.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

H. MAIMIN & H. B. BATJER CLOTH CUTTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 14. 1917.

Patented Nov. 12, 1918,

4 $HEETSSHEET 4.

HYMAN MAIMIN AND HENRY TB. BATJER, or new Your, 1:. Y., ASSIGNOR TO H. MAIMDT I 00., mo, A CORPORATION or NEW YORK.

' CLOTH-CUTTING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 12, 1918.

Application filed February 14, 1917. Serial no. 148,537.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, HYMAN MAI1s II1-I,-a citizen of the United States, and HENRY B. BATJER,-a subject of the Emperor of Germany, both residing in the city, county, and State of New York, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Cloth-Cutting Machines; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates tocloth cutting machines of the reciprocating knife-type, and

more particularly provides an improved structure for guarding the knife when cutting and for sharpening the knife between cutting operations, whereby the machine may be quickly and easily rearranged to adapt the knife for cutting or sharpening as often as may be desired during a single cut.

The knife of. a cloth cutting machine of the reciprocating-knife type requires very frequent sharpening. The machines are used for long cuts, so that the operator is obliged to remove the knife guard attachment from the knife and apply a sharpening implement to the edge of the knife blade, 2. number of times in a single cut. As commonly constructed the knife guard attachment comprises a pivotally mounted struc-- ture which is arranged to protect the knife during cutting, but which must be swung up out of the way when the knife is to be sharpened.- Various kinds of sharpening attachments are employed, it being well known to pivotally mount the sharpening attachment on the machine so that the attachment can be moved out-of the way and out of the line of vision of the operator, when not in use. Such a sharpening attachment may be provided with a pair of revolubly mounted stones adapted to be manually rotated to sharpen the knife.by means of a handle geared to the stones and turned by the operator when the attachment is lowered into operative adjacency to the knife. According to these previous constructions, it has been found necessary, every time the knife needed sharpening, to swing the knife guard away from the k-nife,'then lower the sharpening attachment and operate the same by means of its handle while maintaining the knife guard out of the way, then raise the sharpening attachment and secure it in place, and then again lower the knife guard 1nto operative relation tothe knife, all these operations having to be performed in proper sequence a number of times in a single cutting and constituting with the rapidly reciprocating knife a' very serious source of danger to the fingers of the operator.

According to the present invention, means are provided for operatively connecting the knife guard and sharpening attachments so that when one of the attachments is moved toward the knife blade the other is automatically moved away from the knife blade, and vice versa,

In its preferred form, the invention also makes provision'for the fact that the support to which the knife guard attachment is pivoted is usually verticallyadjustable on the machine in order that the stripper foot carried by the knife guard may be set properly for the thickness of the pile of goods to be cut, whereas the sharpening attachment is pivotally attached to some fixed part of the machine. Accordingly, the invention in its preferred form provides means including elements respectively fixed to the shar ening attachment, to the knife guard attac ment and to the adjustable support on which the knife guard attachment is pivoted, for operatively connecting the knife guard and sharpening attachments in such away that; when one ofthe attachments is moved toward the knife blade the other is automatically moved away from the knife blade, and vice versa, irrespective of the vertical adjustment of the support.

The invention will be understood moreclearly from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanylng drawings illustrating two possible embodiments of the invention.

Inthese drawings Figures 1 and 2 are respectively side and front elevations of a cloth cutting machine with one embodiment of the invention applied thereto, these views illustrating the guard members of the knife guard attachment swung up and cleared out of the way on opposite sides of the knife and the sharpening attachment lowered into'operative relation to the kn fe; Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail view showing certain of the parts as disclosed in Flg. 2; Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. but showing said parts as disclosed in Fig. 1; Fig. 5

' way.

is a section on line 5-5 of Fig. 3; Fig. 6 is a section on line 6-6 of Fig. 4; Fig. 7 is a view generally similar to Fig. 4 but showing another embodiment of the invention, this view being partially in section as indicated by the line 7-7 of Fig. 8; Fig. 8 shows the arrangement of Fig. 7 in front elevation with certain of the parts removed; Fig. 9 shows in front elevation the pivoted arm to be actuated by a swinging movement of the sharpening attachment, and carrying a male wedge member to coact with the pair of symmetrical knife guard attachment; Fig. 10 is a compound view illustrating one of said symmetrical wedge members. such member being shown-to the left in front elevation and to the right in side elevation; Fig. 11 is a bottom plan view of the pair of members as arranged in Fig. 8; and Figs. 12 and 13 are detail views taken on the lines 12-12 and 13-13 of Fig. 9.

Referring to the embodiment shown in Figs. 1 to 6, a knife guard attachment of the well-known flying wing type comprising the two'guard members 14, and a sharpening attachment 15, are swingingly mounted on the machine in the familiar The, details of construction of the sharpening attachment'15 are described and claimed .in a copending application Ser. No. 148,536, filed by us ,on February 14, 1917. The details of construction of. the complementary stripper-foot sectionscarried by the swinging ends of the guard members 14 are disclosed and claimed in another copending application, Ser. No. 148,538, filed by Hyman Mai min on February 14, '1917. Therefore it will be understood that the present invention does not concern itself with the particular sharpening mechanism of the sharpening attachment or with the particular design of the stripper foot structure carried by the knife guard attachment.

As indicated at 14 in broken lines in Fig. 1, the stripper foot structure is adapted to press down on the pile of goods being cut,

and hold down the pile to prevent the same from clinging to and rising with the reciprocating knife 16 on the up-strokes thereof, when the knife guard attachment is lowered and the machine is cutting. L

AS is well known, the knife guard attachment is pivotally mounted on a support 17, which is vertically adjustable on a guide 17 so that the swinging arcof the knife guard attachment may be relocated as desired to correspond with the thickness of any particular vpile of goods about toibe cut; the thumb-screw 18 being provided to clamp the support 17 as adjusted. These guard members 14 are secured to intermeshing spur gears 19, so that the knife guard attachment may be. conveniently raised or loweredlcy raisingor lowering l wedge members secured to the stripper either of the guard-members. The sharp knife attachment are pivoted to swing in a a plane normal to the plane of the knife blade, the sharpening attachment is pivoted to swing in a plane parallel to the plane of the knife blade.

The following mechanism is provided for moving the knife guard attachment or the sharpening attachment away from operative position, automatically, as the other attachment is manually moved toward operative position. One of the gears 19 is fast on its shaft 21 (see Fig. 4) and this shaft is-prolonged so that a bevel gear 22 maybe secured thereon in position to mesh with a similar gear 23 on a vertical shaft 24. This gear 23 is mounted on the vertical shaft to turn therewith, the gear having an integral hub 23 journaled in an extension 25 offset from the vertically adjustable support. 17.-

Also secured to the vertical shaft 24 to turn fiat under face of'this gear 26 is supported on an extension 27 offset from the bracket 20, in which extension the lower end of the vertical shaft 24 is journaled. Bevel gear therewith, is another bevel gear 26. The

26 meshes with a bevel gear 28 fixed on one end of a shaft 29 also fixed to the sharpening attachment'and by which this attachment is pivoted to bracket 20. H

In order that the various bevel gears 22, 23, 26 and 28, and the two spur gears 19 may always constitute an operative geartrain to connect the knife guard attachment and the sharpening attachment whereby when one attachment is moved away from operative position the other will move toward operative position, and at the same time to'permit the adjustment of the support 17 on guide 17 to be varied as desired to adapt the stripper foot carried by the knife guard attachment .to any particular pile of goods to be cut, the bevel gear 23 is not fixed on the vertlcal shaft 24 but is merelyv keyed thereon, as indicated at 30 in Fig. 2. As a result, it will be observed that the two bevel gears 23 and 26 onthe vertical shaft 24 always constitute parts of the -operative gear-train, although one of'said bevel gears is the other.

In operation, either one of the two guard members 14, or the sharpening attachment, as is most convenient, may be raised or lowered,-to substitute one of such attachments for the other. As indicated clearly inFigil, where the thumb screw 18 is shown easily bodily movable relative to accessible even with the sharpening attachment 15 thrownup, the knife guard attachment may be readily ad usted to set the foot structure for any. 'desired height above the machines base-plate. If

desired, the support 17 and guide 17 may any other part of the machine, no matter h w the stripper foot structureis adjusted. Referring now to the embodiment ofthe invention illustrated in Figs. 7 to 13,'the' vertically adjustable support 17 on the guide 17" has pivotally mounted thereon the spur gears 19 to which are secured the knife guard members 14. The lower end of the' guide 17 has secured thereto a bracket 31 V carrying a pair of cars 32 between which the sharpening attachment 15 is pivoted as indicated at 15". Adjacent to its pivoted end the sharpening attachment is provided with a cam 33tto coact with'a bent-wire member 34 pivotally mounted on the support 17 by means of a hinge-pair comprising members 35 and 36, thetwo members being pivoted together at 37 with the members 36 secured to the upper end of the support 17 and the member 35 loosely sleevirig the bent-wire member 34. The inner end of the horizontally ofi'set portion of bent wire member 34 is always within a vertically elongated slot 38 formed in bracket 31 between ears 32. The amount of play afforded such inner end of the bent-wire member 34 by the length of the slot 38, is just suflicient to permit the bent-wire member to assume its broken line position when the sharpening attachment 15 is swung down to assume its broken line position. The arrangement of the parts is such that the cam 33 will force the bent wire member 34 to assume substantially its broken line position every time the sharpening attachment 15 a is lowered to operative position relative to the knife (not shown), irrespective of the vertical adjustment of the support 17 on the guide-17*.

The following means are provided to auto-v matically move the guide members 14' of ,the knife guard attachment away from the knife, when the member 34 is swung in as described by'a lowering of the sharpeningv attachment. A .male wedge member 39 is loosely sleeved on bent-wiremember 34, and 1s arranged to coact with a pair of symmetrical wedge members 40 mounted on arms 41 secured to gears 19 and guard members 14. The breastof the wedge member 39 is always seated in a pocket 42 formed by a pair of similar recesses cut in the opposed side faces of the pairof symmetrical wedge members 40. A retractile spring 43, attached at its. opposite ends to the two wedge members 40 as indicated in Figs. 8 and 10, normally holds the wedge members 40 as'illustrated in full lines, and ,the knife guard attachment is thereby maintainedin effective relation to the knife. A cup 44 is mounted onmember 34 for receiving one end of an expansile spring 45. This cup 44 will always be opposite a cup, 46 formed on support 17 for receiving the other end of spring 45, because the cup 44 is on a sleeve formed integral with the portion of wedge member 39 which sleeves member 34, which wedge member will always be locked against vertical movement relative to the symmetrical wedge members40, as will be understood, by means of the pocket 42; irrespective of the vertical adjustment of support 17 on guide 17 The expansile sprlng 45 serves to urge the lower portion of the bent wire member 34 yieldingly againstthe cam 33 at all times.

The operation of theembodiment just described should. be obvious. Each time the sharpening attachment is lowered into operative adjacency tothe knife, the bent-wire member 34 is forced to assume the broken line position of Fig. 7, with the result that wedge member 39 forces wedge members 40 s ufliciently apart to cause the knife guard members 14 to assume approximately the positions indicated in broken lines in Fig. 8. Afterthe stones of the sharpening attachment have been applied to the knife edge, and when the sharpening attachment is swung up above the knife, the retractile spring 43 returns the guard members 14 to operative position 'relative to. the knife as indicated in full lines in Fig. 8. At the same time, the wedge members 40 are again brought together to reestablish the pocket 42; and the eXpansile spring 45 causes the bent-wire member 34 to follow the cam 33 as such cam moves from thebroken line position to the full line position of Fig. 7. The springs 43 and 45- and the other parts are so proportioned and designed that the spring 43 is never able to cause the wedge member 39 to bind between the wedge members 40 during the withdrawal of the wedge member 39. Nevertheless. the three wedge members are always held against relat ve vertical movement due to the way in which the wedge member 39 is always engaged by the top and bottom walls of the recesses which form the pocket 42; and thereby an operative train of mechanism 18 always 1nterposed between the two attachments to attain the objects of the invention irrespective of the vertical adjustment of the support 17 on the guide 17.

Weclaim:

1. In a cloth cutting machine of the kind described, the combination of a knife guard tive adjacency thereto, and means'operatively connecting the two attachments for causing a swinging movementjof the knife guard attachment away from the knife blade when the sharpening attachment is swung in toward the knife blade.

3. In a cloth cutting machine of the kind described, the combinationof aknife guard attachment, a support vertically adjustable on the machine and to which the attachment is pivoted, a sharpening'attachment pivotally mounted on the machine, and mecha-. nism for always causing a pivotal movement of the knife guard irrespective of the adjustment of the support when the sharpening attachment is moved on its pivot. 4. In a cloth cutting machineof the kind described, the combination of a knife guard attachment, a support adjustable on the mar chine and to which the attachment is pivoted, a sharpening attachment pivotally mounted on the machine, and a gear train for operatively connecting the two attachments in various ad ustments thereof and in various adjustments of the'support, the 'gear train including a gear fixed on the sharpen- 40 ing attachment, a gear fixed on the knife 5. In a cloth cutting machine of the kind guard attachment and a gear carried ,by the ort. I

described, the combination of a knife guard attachment comprising a pair of guard members each pivotally mounted to permit it to be swung away from the knife in aplane substantially normal thereto, a sharpsharpjening attachment,

ening attachment pivoted to permit it to be swung toward the knife in a plane si1bstantially parallel thereto, and means carried partially by the knife guard and partially by the sharpening attachment whereby upon a manual swinging of the sharpening at-.

tachment to operative position relative to the knife, the guard members are both cleared out of the way on opposite sides of the knifecso as to avoid interference with the approach of the sharpening attachment toward. the knife and also to' avoid interfer-.

position.

6; In a cloth cutting machine of the kind described, the combination of a pivoted knife guard attachment, a pivoted sharpening attachment, and a gear train including mice with manual actuation of the sharpening attachment when moved to operative two elements, one of which is fixed to each of the two attachments, the 'two attachments being pivoted to swing in non-parallel planes. c

-7. In acloth cutting machine of the kind described, the combination with the vertically adjustable knife guard support, of a v 1 knifeguard attachment pivoted on said sup port, 'a sharpening attachment pivoted on another part of the machine, a gear fixed on the sharpening attachment, a gear fixed on the knife guard attachment, an intermediate gear always meshing with the gear on the another intermediate gear always meshing with the gear on the knife guard attachment, one of said intermediate gears being carried by the vertically adjustable support, and means always "operatively .connecting the two intermediate gears while permitting bodily movement of one intermediate gear relative to theother,

whereby when one intermediate gear is Totated the other rotates irrespective of the vertical adjustment of said support.

In testimony tures.

HYMAN MAIMIN.

whereof we aflix ounsigna- 

